Musing over which title to choose for this month’s Crimes of the Century community review event, there seemed to be one irresistible criterion. As the chosen year of publication at Past Offences this month is 1943, I searched for a crime novel that was set during that turbulent and uncertain time of global war, and found Tied for Murder by Cortland Fitzsimmons, an American author and screenwriter whose mystery stories sometimes used sporting events as backdrops: 70,000 Witnesses: A Football Mystery (1932), Death on the Diamond: A Baseball Mystery (1934), Crimson Ice: A Hockey Mystery (1935).

Tied for Murder finds psychologist and suspect Percy Peacock investigating the rather gruesome death of a heartless lothario named Christopher Smaed in a school building where a first-aid class practices how to care for air raid victims. Christopher is chosen as a test subject, and he is placed onto a stretcher by, ironically, his estranged wife Gloria and a frustrated ex-girlfriend, Ruth Teale.

Ruth ties Christopher’s hands tightly on Gloria’s suggestion, and the group takes the man to a new room. But the lights go out – a blackout has been announced – and in the ensuing darkness and confusion the young man on the stretcher is forgotten about. But at least one person still remembers, because Percy soon makes a bloody discovery: he finds Christopher Smaed with his hands still bound and his throat cut.

Fitzsimmons does an admirable job building a list of suspects, each with a recognizable motive for revenge, ranging from jealousy to humiliation to blackmail to financial ruin. Added to the cast of characters are a flighty co-ed named Fanny, whom Percy nicknames Gracie, after comic radio personality Allen; Claude and Nancy Stevens, a rather unlikeable husband and wife with obviously something to hide and argue about; and Fred Hewing, whose fall at the top of a staircase during the blackout (was he tripped to create a distraction?) led to a cut on his hand. A police detective named Trenton clearly has Gloria Smaed in his sights as the murderer, so it is up to Percy and an affable deputy named Bill Dunning to prove her innocence and find the real culprit.

For me, the book (and my reaction) was a curious affair of the selected and the neglected regarding details and tonal choices. It starts with the intriguing murder-during-a-blackout premise, but after the stage is darkened for murder there is apparently no more need for references, so the author never alludes to life during wartime after Chapter Three. I had expected at least passing references to gas rationing or rubber shortages or further air raid concerns in the coastal California town, but the blackout and the first-aid training are the only details specific to the time.

Next, there was an intriguing but odd fusion of English cosy and American hard-boiled that did not quite succeed. Part of this is due to the reaction of everyone involved, who seem to take events following the initial murder – like two sprays of bullets into two different houses, the explosion of a runaway laundry truck, more fire in a backyard, and the discovery of another body – with a surprisingly calm resignation. For a tale whose amateur detective is a psychologist, I would expect the hapless citizens to show at least a few signs of inner stress and tension.

It is a similar binary of strong and weak, of engaging and disconnecting that ultimately makes me indifferent to reading other works by Cortland Fitzsimmons. Tied for Murder is well-plotted and well-populated, and upon reaching the final chapter I recognized that it was a worthwhile fair-play entry of the genre. But it also felt disposable, with no distinct style or authorial perspective, the way many 1930s or '40s Hollywood B-pictures do. It’s by no means a waste of time to experience, but there’s precious little to put it in the ranks of the best stories from the era. The characters are a bit too flat and forgettable, the scenario not worth much beyond its initial novelty. To me, Tied for Murder is a serviceable and readable mystery story, nothing more or less, and sometimes a competent diversion is all that is needed to take one’s mind off the troubling skies.

Hi Tracy -- I am overdue to visit your site! February seemed to go by in a blur, and I wasn't even sure whether I would be able to finish this book for the Crimes of the Century round-up.

That's what perhaps disappointed me the most: the really compelling wartime setting was not explored much beyond a situational plot setup. It didn't feel like anything was really honest or believable, and characters were just running around until the villain could be revealed. I think it's telling that Fitzsimmons was known as a Hollywood genre screenwriter.

A really ambitious book that plunks you right down in the London blitz -- and which I've been meaning to revisit ever since first reading it more than a decade ago -- is Gladys Mitchell's other 1943 publication, Sunset over Soho. It's a real departure for her, somber and shadowy and featuring some land and sea wartime action, and it's intriguing far more than offputting, at least for me. If you want, you can visit my review at http://gladysmitchell.com/sunset.htm , which tries to define the positives and negatives. If you do read Soho, please let me know what you think!

Jason, sorry that I so totally misread the review and thought the book was set at least in the UK, if not in London. Hard to believe someone would be forgotten on a stretcher if it was just an exercise.

I did go read the review of the book by Gladys Mitchell, and Sunset over Soho does sound like I book I should try. Even with its negative aspects that you pointed out.

I have done a lot of reading at your Gladys Mitchell site over the last couple of years. I have enjoyed it and admire the work you have put into it.

@Tracy -- No problem about the American/British confusion! I only mention California once in the review, and some of the other 1943 book reviews chose to look at stories exploring the toll taken on wartime Britain, so it's easy to be thinking about the Blitz.

Thank you for the kind words about the Gladys Mitchell site. It's getting a makeover this month to bring it into the 21st century in terms of look and navigation as an Internet source! I've been meaning to do that for a while, and want to do so before a GM short story (with an introduction by me) shows up in the May/June Alfred Hitchcock Magazine. All best wishes -- Jason

John

2/27/2017 11:55:54 am

I've read only one book by Fitzsimons and it was so horrid that I've never returned to him. Interestingly, there is a murder while the lights are out in that book, too. But it's a party game of "Murder in the Dark" not a blackout or power failure. The book is RED RHAPSODY and deals with a concert pianist among many other forgettable characters. I'll not go into any further details about the ludicrous plot. I think the psychologist sleuth in the book you read is a one off character not appearing in any other books. He had a spinster sleuth (a la Miss Marple) as his primary series character, but it was his sports themed mysteries that made him somewhat noteworthy in US mystery writing.

Hi John -- Very interesting comments! I'm always a bit of a sucker for evocative titles -- someone on one of the threads said about murder mysteries that it was a well-written blurb that enticed, and another said it was a good dustjacket, but I will go out of my way to read something with a promising title -- so it's good to know that RED RHAPSODY doesn't deliver. That probably would have been my second Fitzsimmons, if I were impressed enough with this one to actually look for a second title. With your insights, I think I'll pass.

The plot of TIED FOR MURDER could reasonably be called ludicrous, especially with all of the crazy events happening in the remainder of the book, but at least it stayed on the rails and fulfilled genre expectations. But I was struck that there was nothing singular to truly recommend it.

Curious, after reading and writing the review I went to Barzun & Taylor's encyclopedia of entries, and the sole Fitzsimmons review was dismissed along similar lines: forgettable and unintentionally silly. I didn't dislike my reading experience, but I suspect that is because antipathy is an emotion that such mediocre work doesn't really inspire.

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fran

3/4/2017 03:03:27 pm

To Tracybham: " I have been reading a lot about the blitz lately and this would have been the perfect book to read." As Jason points out this story took place in a coastal California town whereas the Blitz was the bombing of Britian most notably London. His recommendation of Gladys Mitchell's Sunset over Soho sounds like what you might be after.

Hi Fran -- Thanks so much for visiting the site, and for offering clarification. We're so used to reading British Golden Age mysteries around here that it's easy to forget which country we're in -- and where the writers are from -- when we throw in an American story! All best wishes, and happy reading!

Jason

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